Fiascos don't get more embarrassing than the four-year-delayed, $28-million-over-budget Jefferson Parish Performing Arts Center. Parish officials have a unanimous choice for scapegoat: former Councilman John Lavarine Jr.

Lavarine represented the East Jefferson district that includes the arts center site, which gave him the de facto power to select the New Orleans firm Wisznia Associates to design the structure more than a decade ago. The arts center was a highly specialized project and one of the parish's costliest public buildings; Wisznia had never undertaken that type of work, and a technical committee ranked the company fourth among five architects vying for the job.

But following council tradition, Lavarine's colleagues deferred to him because the project was in his district.

Lavarine had no expertise in design, but he was familiar with architect Marcel Wisznia's firm. The company gave Lavarine and his son, then-Kenner Councilman John Lavarine III, 10 donations worth a combined $7,000 around the time Wisznia's arts center contract was negotiated and approved, campaign and parish records show. Only one other company seeking the contract, N-Y Associates, had contributed to the Lavarines, giving them $6,250 in the same period.

Story by

Manuel TorresNOLA.com |The Times-Picayune

Lee ZurikFox 8 News/Fox8live.com

Wisznia didn't return a message seeking comment. Lavarine Jr., in his first public comments about the issue in years, said "not even one time" did he consider Wisznia's contributions when choosing the firm. "They've got to blame somebody, and I'm no longer there," Lavarine said of current parish officials.

Wisznia was hardly the only contractor to give contributions to council members at the same time as it sought no-bid work awarded by the council. On the contrary, half of all the money raised by Parish Council members and parish presidents in recent years came from a relatively small group of donors that overwhelmingly includes architects, engineers, attorneys and consultants that get no-bid contracts, an analysis by NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune and WVUE Fox 8 News has found.

Examining contributions between 2009 and 2012, the news organizations identified the top 100 donors in Jefferson Parish - almost all contractors. They made up only 4 percent of the more than 2,560 contributors in the period, but were responsible for 50.1 percent of roughly $5.5 million poured into the campaigns of officials in the same four years. Cumulative amounts given ranged from $10,250 to $108,000.

Council members say contributions from these top donors don't factor into their contracting decisions, and that running for office in their populous districts is expensive, forcing them to raise large sums of money. They also cite recent rule changes that have made it easier for residents to know how much contractors gave to parish officials and which politicians personally asked for campaign money, improving transparency.

"I don't sit and look at it like, 'This contractor gave me that amount,'" said Councilman Mark Spears. "Contributions have nothing to do with it."

Councilman Ben Zahn issued a statement taking issue with the news organizations' analysis highlighting contributions given in the same years in which contractors received parish work.

"To blanketly impugn the reputation(s) of entire industries, when qualified professionals submit their proposals for consideration publicly, and such proposals are graded by independent committees, then ranked for council selection, is simply unfair," Zahn said.

But the evaluations from those committees Zahn mentioned are almost meaningless, according to Janet Howard, president of the independent Bureau of Government Research, because council members are not required to consider the scores when picking a contractor.

"To go through the scoring and then say, 'But now we're going to pick whoever we want to pick regardless of what the score shows,' it's not a smart way of doing public business," Howard said.

Critics said the arts center debacle, particularly Wisznia's selection, has become a symbol of how campaign contributions and public contracts intersect in Jefferson Parish, and they are pushing to curb the council's broad discretion to grant millions of dollars a year in professional services. Howard said there's a "basic conflict of interest" with how the parish spends tax dollars on professional services.

"They have power to award contracts and they are running in campaigns that are financed to a significant degree by contractors," Howard said. The problems caused by Wisznia's selection, she said, are "a story that you don't want to see repeated."

Examining Jefferson's contributions

The examination of Jefferson Parish contributions was part of a four-month joint project by NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune and WVUE Fox 8 News to take a comprehensive look at campaign finance practices across the state. Reporters examined more that 740,000 contributions between 2009 and 2012, analyzing giving and spending patterns and creating Internet tools that allow the public to search the data as well.

Reporters focused on Jefferson Parish, in part, because it is the only large government in the metro area that gives contracting power to its legislative body with almost no restrictions on council members' discretion to award contracts.

The news organizations reviewed contributions given to all current council members and Parish President John Young, a former councilman. Reporters also examined donations in the four-year period to former officials who served on the council or in the parish presidency at any point within that four-year window. They included, among others, former Councilman Tom Capella, who is now the parish's assessor, and former Parish President Aaron Broussard, who is now in prison for corruption.

Among the findings:

- Three of every four donors in the parish's top 100 were architects, engineers, attorneys, consultants or other individuals who seek professional service contracts or other no-bid work from the council. Unlike construction contracts awarded through a public bid, which by law must go to the company with the lowest price, the council can hand out professional contracts essentially at will, regardless of rankings or price. Council members said they select firms from among the top ranked in most cases and that they recently restored price as a partial criterion - 20 percent - in scoring some professional contractors. But council members are not required to consider those scores, rendering them almost meaningless.

- More companies seeking no-bid work contributed, and in much larger amounts, than firms seeking bid contracts. To compare contributions between the two groups, reporters examined donations during the four-year period by firms seeking work in a sample of council meetings, where the contracts are awarded. The contrasts were staggering: Firms seeking no-bid contracts at the council's June 12 meeting, for example, gave a combined $512,000 between 2009 and 2012 to council members, while contractors seeking bid work at that same meeting gave only $20,500 in the same four years. Other meetings showed a similar gap.

- Councilmen Spears and Elton Lagasse's campaign contributions had the highest percentage from top 100 donors. Spears received $3 of every $4 in his campaign money from that group. Lagasse was not too far behind, getting 71 percent of his money from the group. Zahn had the third highest percentage, at 62 percent. (See contributions to Spears' campaign, and to Lagasse's in NOLA.com's contributions database.)

- Young and Councilwoman Cynthia Lee-Sheng had the lowest percentage of donations from the parish's top donors, with each official getting about a third of his or her money from the top 100.(See contributions to Young's campaign, and to Lee-Sheng's.)

- In dollar amounts, Council Chairman Chris Roberts received the most from among the top 100 donors, raising more than $477,000 from that group. Young followed with more than $433,000 and Lagasse raised nearly $340,000. All three men represent the entire parish and have campaign limits of $5,000 per donor per election, twice the $2,500 limit for district council offices, helping explain their higher amounts. (See contributions to Roberts' campaign.)

- Among former officials, ex-Councilmen Byron Lee and Louis Congemi each amassed more than two-thirds of their campaign cash from the top 100 donors. That group gave Capella and Broussard 47 percent and 46 percent, respectively, of the officials' campaign money. (See contributions to Broussard's campaign and the campaigns of Capella, Lee and Congemi.)

The news organizations' findings affirmed the conclusions of an analysis by BGR, which last year said 43 percent of all the money the council raised in 2011 came from no-bid contractors and their principals. The civic group Citizens for Good Government also routinely highlights the large amount of money the council gets from vendors.

Officials: Contributions had nothing to do with it

Most parish officials agreed to interviews or released statements regarding campaign contributions and contracting. They all rejected any notion that they considered donations when deciding who gets parish work.

"I can only speak as to my personal experience in this process, which has never been guided by contributions," Zahn's statement said. (See contributions to Zahn's campaign.)

Councilman Paul Johnston, in a statement, said that he has "always complied fully with state law on my campaign fundraising. While I appreciate the support from those who contribute to my campaign, my actions on the council are not influenced by any campaign donation or endorsement." (See contributions to Johnston's campaign.)

Lagasse, in a statement, said: "I have never made a professional service appointment based on any contribution made to my campaign." He said he consults with staff and administration personnel when selecting professionals.

Lee-Sheng noted that evaluation committees, financial disclosures for public officials and limits on campaign donations all help ensure "that one individual company doesn't have unfair access to government." She said evaluation committees often rank several firms close at the top, and "a selection amongst any of those firms well protects the public." But picking from outside those groupings, she said, "should be well-justified and explained."

Roberts said contributions don't play a role in his decisions, and noted that any quid pro quo would be illegal. Young said he was not influenced by campaign contributions when he was a member of the Parish Council.

Some officials acknowledged that the data collected by the news organizations, particularly the contrast between the high donations by firms seeking no-bid work and the smaller amounts by bid participants, raised questions.

"Certainly it appears that those who are no-bid (contractors) are replying more than those who are bid" contractors, said Roberts.

Asked to venture a reason for the discrepancy, both Roberts and Young said that's a question for the contractors.

Contractor: "I'm just glad there are limits."

Many of the companies among the top 100 donors received work under what are known as "routine engineering contracts" for tasks of less than $300,000. Council members, generally following the lead of the district representatives, award those contracts with little discussion by simply selecting contractors from a list of pre-approved firms.

BGR has said the $300,000 threshold is too high to award contracts without a competitive process. The government watchdog also has criticized the Council's practice of extending and adding costs to those "routine" contracts turning them into much larger deals.

That was the case for a no-bid technology contract held for more than 16 years by Barowka & Bonura Engineers and Consultants. The firm first landed the contract in 1996 as an engineering agreement worth $132,000. Annual extensions and additions, without competitive offers, ballooned the contract to $1.7 million a year by 2011.

The company was the 10th largest donor to Jefferson campaigns in the period analyzed, giving a total $60,600 between 2009 and 2012. (See some of Barowka & Bonura's contributions to candidates across Louisiana.)

In September 2011, the council rejected the Young administration's proposal to seek offers for the work, and opted instead to renew Barowka & Bonura's contract for another year at $1.7 million.

After the September vote, principal Walt Barowka discussed the firm's large contributions with The Times-Picayune.

"We pretty much support all the incumbents, because it's the nature of the beast," Barowka said. Lamenting that council members had to spend $300,000 or more to win an election, he added: "I'm sure that contractors like us are contributing to the problem, but I don't know how to stop it. I'm just glad there are limits."

A few months later, the council reversed itself and sought proposals for Barowka & Bonura's contract - a step council members have said was not retaliation for Walt Barowka's comments. In July 2012, a majority of the council voted to give the contract to New Era Information Technologies, at the same $1.7 million annual cost.

New Era was No. 34 in the list of top 100 donors, contributing $27,300 to parish officials between 2009 and 2012. New Era's owner Dave Campbell didn't return messages seeking comment. (See some of the contributions by New Era.)

Not every top Jefferson contributor in the years analyzed was a company seeking parish work. The top 100 also included a few developers who sought zoning or construction variances, which are also approved or rejected by council members. That was the case for former riverboat casino owner Robert Guidry, whose firm received some variances for projects at the Fountain Park Centre, a commercial development in Harvey, during the four years analyzed.

In that same period, Guidry, his family and their companies contributed $30,600 to parish officials, earning the Guidrys the 29th spot in the parish's top 100 list. (See some of Robert Guidry's contributions.)

Like other donors, the Guidrys at times bundled their contributions, delivering them over a few days. During a three-week period in October 2011, for example, Guidry family members and their companies donated a combined $19,500 to the campaigns of Young, Councilman Ricky Templet, Johnston, Spears and Zahn.

Robert Guidry didn't return a call seeking comment.

Arts Center mess exposes need for changes, critics say

For advocates of contracting changes, no contract better illustrates the problems with Jefferson Parish's current practices more than the professional contracts awarded in the arts center project.

Wisznia, the architectural firm Lavarine selected, got paid more than $1.8 million for its work. But parish officials have said the plans were riddled with errors and the parish sued Wisznia in state court. The suit was settled last year for $1.3 million. Wisznia denied that it was in error and didn't admit liability.

Lavarine said the technical committee had deemed Wisznia qualified and the architect did a good job designing the LaSalle Tract, the 47-acre park surrounding the arts center. Of five applicants, Wisznia was the only one to accept his invitation to make a presentation about the project, Lavarine said. He said it was up to parish administrators and firms hired to oversee the project to check Wisznia's drawings.

Wisznia was not the only contributor to land no-bid work at the arts center. In late 2002 the council hired a construction management firm to oversee the project. Lavarine, as the district representative, was again the key official making the selection. He picked a venture that included Urban Planning and Innovations, a firm run by former Kenner City Council President Nick Baroni. Lavarine and Baroni had served together on the Kenner Council for about two decades.

Then in 2006 the council selected engineering firm Perrin & Carter as the new construction manager for the arts center. Officials said the company's job was to keep costs under control. But under Perrin & Carter's watch, the project's costs grew by more than $20 million between 2006 and 2011. In that same period, Perrin & Carter was paid $3.1 million for administering the job, parish records show.

Perrin & Carter ranked fourth among top donors to parish campaigns, pouring more than $79,000 in the campaign coffers of the council and parish president between 2009 and 2012. The firm did not respond to a message seeking comment. (See Perrin and Carter's contributions.)

Margie Seemann, vice chairwoman of Citizens for Good Government, said the council's broad discretion might make some contractors feel - intentionally or not - that they can't decline solicitations for contributions.

"If you want to get a contract in Jefferson Parish and the council asks for a contribution, can you say no?" Seemann asked.

Absolutely, council members said. After all, some noted, some contractors seeking bid work also contribute - even though the council has no discretion in those cases.

Seemann and Howard, however, said the best way to prevent contributions from even being a factor is to require the council to pick the highest ranked company for professional work.

"That's the only way you can assure that the contributions do not affect the awarding of the contract," Seemann said.

Firms seeking no-bid work give the most Companies seeking work awarded by political discretion during any given Parish Council meeting contributed much more, between 2009-2012, than firms on the same meeting seeking bid work awarded to the lowest bidder. Here's a sample of recent meetings: